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Table 2 GRADE quality assessment

From: The effects of exercise on vascular endothelial function in type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Quality assessment

No of patients

Effect

Quality

Importance

No of studies

Design

Risk of bias

Inconsistency

Indirectness

Imprecision

Other considerations

Exercise

Control

Relative (95% CI)

Absolute

Flow-mediated dilation

 8

Randomised trials

No serious risk of bias

Seriousa

No serious indirectness

No serious imprecision

None

196

110

–

SMD 0.41 higher

(0.21 higher to 0.62 higher)

⊕⊕⊕Ο

Moderate

Critical

Shear rate area under the curve

 3

Randomised trials

No serious risk of bias

Seriousa

No serious indirectness

Very seriousb,c

None

78

15

–

SMD 0.05 lower

(0.43 lower to 0.34 higher)

⊕⊕ΟΟ

Low

Critical

Baseline brachial artery diameter

 7

Randomised trials

No serious risk of bias

No serious inconsistency

No serious indirectness

Seriousc

None

171

95

–

SMD 0.04 lower

(0.25 lower to 0.17 higher)

⊕⊕⊕Ο

Moderate

Critical

Body mass index

 7

Randomised trials

No serious risk of bias

No serious inconsistency

No serious indirectness

Seriousc

None

183

95

–

SMD 0.13 lower

(0.34 lower to 0.08 higher)

⊕⊕⊕Ο

Moderate

Important

  1. aQuite different inflation pressure between studies
  2. bOutcome based on only three studies
  3. c95% confidence interval includes zero